Look after your mental health – young people give their essential tips

Young people working with Somerset County Council have come up with essential advice on maintaining good mental health.

Mental Health LifeHacks is an online resource for young people to support their mental health and wellbeing. The project was supported by the Council’s Public Health team to ensure the resource was created by young people for young people.

The project enabled a group of diverse young people to spend time together talking about mental health and how it affects them.

The team put together the set of LifeHacks to help manage their mental health as well as helping their friends.

The new information is part of a major refresh for the existing website which was also developed with the help of young people. The LifeHacks can be viewed online and downloaded as a pdf.

The team launch LifeHacks

Hanna Wittek, a Somerset Member of the Youth Parliament, who was involved in creating the content said: “We felt before we did this that the content was a bit wordy and the language wasn’t quite right – it didn’t really speak to young people.

“We wanted the advice to come from young people because it’s for them.”

Nicole Tucker, one of Somerset County Council’s Young People’s Champions also worked on the project.

She added: “We also created posters and colourful, easy-to-carry cards which fit in your pocket or wallet and have some of the key information on them.”

Examples of some of the tips include being kind to yourself, doing activities you enjoy, keeping a journal or a blog and finding someone to talk to about how you feel.

Coming up with content during one of the workshops

Posters and handy cards will be posted out to schools in the new academic year.

Somerset County Council’s Cabinet Member for Children and Families, Cllr Frances Nicholson said: “The LifeHacks material was first developed by young people a year or two ago and it is really good to see them refreshed, updated and developed further, by young people for young people.

“I am very grateful for all the hard work that has gone into updating them so they and developing their effectiveness as a support for all young people. Now the task is to make sure everyone knows about and can access them if they need.”